Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but I am back! And ready to organize! Now, some of this stuff is basic knowledge. But I'm sure that you can glean some new ideas, even if you're a master orgainzer!
1. Keep the stuff you use everyday close at hand. Put the things you use only once a year (like holiday serving dishes or Christmas decorations) in those hard-to-reach areas. Keep your everyday items in areas that are easily accessible.
2. Kitchen hint #1: Keep items in cupboards next to the place they are used. For example, keep the coffee and filters in the cabinet above the coffee pot. Keep drinking glasses next to the fridge. Keep spices next to the oven. (Next to it, but not directly overhead, as the heat can cause them to lose their potency.)
3. Kitchen hint #2: Put away all appliances that you don't use at least once or twice a week. I lived for years with a toaster taking up cabinet space. I never ate toast, and had poptarts or frozen French toast maybe once every 2 or 3 months. I finally wised up, moved the toaster to the cupboard, and put something cute in its spot that made me smile when I looked at it. :)
4. Bathroom hint: Do NOT store medications (prescription or OTC) in the bathroom! The heat and humidity can damage their potency. I store my everyday meds in a pretty storage box in my computer room (where I take them every night), and my occasional pills (like cold medicine and Pepto Bismal) in a drawer in the hutch in the hallway.
5. Forget the ridiculous rule of "Handle paper only once." Seriously? Who goes through the mail, pulls out a bill, pays it, and then moves on to the next piece? Sort things down and get your paper clutter under control. I have three piles: file, handle, and pitch. Okay, the "pitch" pile goes straight in the trash. The file pile (bank statements and so forth) gets filed as soon as possible. The handle pile gets "handled" appropriately: bills to pay get put in my bill-paying bin, things I need to look up on-line get put next to the computer, and so forth.
6. Make up bill-paying box. It can be a pretty box from a craft store, something you decorate yourself, or even just a plain old shoebox. Include everything you need to pay bills: Pen, stamps, envelopes, calculator, and checkbook (if you don't keep it in your purse). That way, when it's time to pay bills, just grab the pile of bills from your bill-paying pile and your box, and you're ready to go!
In addition to my bill-paying box, I have one for sending out the missions checks from church (I am treasurer of our church's Missions Committee). It includes everything listed above, plus a highlighter for balancing up the checkbook with the bank statement. When I get a new bank statement, I just toss it in the box. That way I know just where it is, and I don't have to rummage through my office looking for it.
Those are just some organizing basics to get you started. There are tons of books and websites out there to explore when you're ready to take it to the next step! One of my favorites is a blog called IHeartOrganizing (link is below in my favorite blog list). She always has cute stuff, both from her own house, and from readers' contributions.
Now that you are getting your home under control, we'll talk about getting your life under control the next time!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Should It Stay Or Should It Go?
Today we will talk about deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. Sometimes it's hard to decide what needs to go. Sometimes we are emotionally attached to an item, even though we never use and and didn't really want it in the first place. So where do we start?
Some items are no-brainers. We all have sentimental things that we'll never get rid of. My mom made a quilt for my high school graduation gift using scraps of clothes that she had made me while I was growing up. It has been washed so many times it's falling apart and I'm afraid to use it anymore. But you can bet I'll never get rid of it!
But not everything has sentimental value. Some doesn't really have any value. How many spatulas and frying pans do we really need? How long are we going to hang on to our skinny clothes? How many medicines in our medicine cabinet are expired?
We need to address each item and ask ourselves: Do I love it? Do I use it? Do I need it? Does it mean something to me? Do I have something else that can do the same thing? How many of these will I realistically use at one time? Could someone else get more use out of it? Did I borrow this from someone else and forget to return it? lol!
As we answer these questions, it becomes much easier to sort down our items and decide what to keep. Now, here are a few tips and tricks I've heard (and often used) over the years.
1. Take all of your kitchen gadgets, spatulas, etc. and put them in a box. Over the next month, pull out each item as you need it and put it back in the drawer when it's clean. At the end of the month, pull out anything you only use once or twice a year (like a turkey baster or candy thermometer), and get rid of anything else left in the box. You don't need it!
2. If you're unsure about keeping something, put it in a box, seal it up, and date it for a year from now. At the end of the year, you probably won't even remember what's in the box. You can get rid of it! (Just don't peek, lol!)
3. At the end of each season, go through your closet & dresser, and get rid of anything seasonal you didn't wear this year. If you didn't wear it this year, you're not going to wear it next year, either.
4. Twice a year when you change your fire alarm batteries, go through your medicine cabinet and get rid of expired medications. While most of them aren't harmful, they do lose their potency over time and will not do you much good. Now, if you want to be really responsible, you can take them to your local pharmacy for safe disposal. But if you're lazy like me (and they're just OTC medications), just pitch them. :)
5. Only have 2 sets of sheets per bed: one on the bed, and one in the closet to replace them on laundry day. (I only have one set, actually. They are a lovely pale pink and match my bedspread. I wash them and put them right back on my bed when they're done.)
So, what do you with the things you're getting rid of? You will either toss it in the trash or donate it. I always have a Goodwill box going, and take it in once it's full. You can also donate household items, even used ones, to your local homeless shelter. When someone is starting from scratch, they're happy to have anything. In fact, the lady from the homeless shelter told us that people will often bring back their "starter" items for others to use when they are able to buy new things for themselves.
But some things are not worth donating. Broken electronics, ripped or stained clothing, opened cosmetics, smelly shoes, and so forth need to go straight in the trash. Only donate usable items!
(My sister once had a boyfriend who worked at Salvation Army. He said a lot of people used it as a dump for things they didn't want to pay to get rid of. He said SalvA had to pay to get rid of this trash! So put your trash in the trash!)
One final note: don't leave this stuff sitting around your house for the next 6 months! Get rid of it asap! Take out the trash on your very next trash day. (Or if you're lucky enough to have a dumpster, take out each bag or box as you fill it up.) And make it a goal to take your donations to the proper place within the next week. As a box or bag fills up, put it in your car.
So what do you do with the things you've decided to keep? There have been countless books written on organizing, and I'm sure you can find lots of them at your local library. But I will cover some basics with you tomorrow. See you then!
Some items are no-brainers. We all have sentimental things that we'll never get rid of. My mom made a quilt for my high school graduation gift using scraps of clothes that she had made me while I was growing up. It has been washed so many times it's falling apart and I'm afraid to use it anymore. But you can bet I'll never get rid of it!
But not everything has sentimental value. Some doesn't really have any value. How many spatulas and frying pans do we really need? How long are we going to hang on to our skinny clothes? How many medicines in our medicine cabinet are expired?
We need to address each item and ask ourselves: Do I love it? Do I use it? Do I need it? Does it mean something to me? Do I have something else that can do the same thing? How many of these will I realistically use at one time? Could someone else get more use out of it? Did I borrow this from someone else and forget to return it? lol!
As we answer these questions, it becomes much easier to sort down our items and decide what to keep. Now, here are a few tips and tricks I've heard (and often used) over the years.
1. Take all of your kitchen gadgets, spatulas, etc. and put them in a box. Over the next month, pull out each item as you need it and put it back in the drawer when it's clean. At the end of the month, pull out anything you only use once or twice a year (like a turkey baster or candy thermometer), and get rid of anything else left in the box. You don't need it!
2. If you're unsure about keeping something, put it in a box, seal it up, and date it for a year from now. At the end of the year, you probably won't even remember what's in the box. You can get rid of it! (Just don't peek, lol!)
3. At the end of each season, go through your closet & dresser, and get rid of anything seasonal you didn't wear this year. If you didn't wear it this year, you're not going to wear it next year, either.
4. Twice a year when you change your fire alarm batteries, go through your medicine cabinet and get rid of expired medications. While most of them aren't harmful, they do lose their potency over time and will not do you much good. Now, if you want to be really responsible, you can take them to your local pharmacy for safe disposal. But if you're lazy like me (and they're just OTC medications), just pitch them. :)
5. Only have 2 sets of sheets per bed: one on the bed, and one in the closet to replace them on laundry day. (I only have one set, actually. They are a lovely pale pink and match my bedspread. I wash them and put them right back on my bed when they're done.)
So, what do you with the things you're getting rid of? You will either toss it in the trash or donate it. I always have a Goodwill box going, and take it in once it's full. You can also donate household items, even used ones, to your local homeless shelter. When someone is starting from scratch, they're happy to have anything. In fact, the lady from the homeless shelter told us that people will often bring back their "starter" items for others to use when they are able to buy new things for themselves.
But some things are not worth donating. Broken electronics, ripped or stained clothing, opened cosmetics, smelly shoes, and so forth need to go straight in the trash. Only donate usable items!
(My sister once had a boyfriend who worked at Salvation Army. He said a lot of people used it as a dump for things they didn't want to pay to get rid of. He said SalvA had to pay to get rid of this trash! So put your trash in the trash!)
One final note: don't leave this stuff sitting around your house for the next 6 months! Get rid of it asap! Take out the trash on your very next trash day. (Or if you're lucky enough to have a dumpster, take out each bag or box as you fill it up.) And make it a goal to take your donations to the proper place within the next week. As a box or bag fills up, put it in your car.
So what do you do with the things you've decided to keep? There have been countless books written on organizing, and I'm sure you can find lots of them at your local library. But I will cover some basics with you tomorrow. See you then!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
What Do I Do With All Of This Stuff?
I have been in bed sick with the flu for the last couple of days, and nothing makes you appreciate good health like hugging the toilet for 12 hours straight! But I digress. Now I will continue with my regular posts.
If you've followed my advice in my last post, you have now taken out the trash, taken the dirty dishes to the kitchen, put away your clothes, and put away everything that has a home. Some of you are actually finished with your cleaning now. Yay! Just dust and vacuum and you're good to go!
However, if you're like me, you still have a pile of stuff that doesn't have homes. (Most of mine is my newly acquired Christmas presents.) This is called clutter. Clutter can eat you alive. It can actually cause you to feel depressed and drain your energy. It is not healthy for us.
The common way of thinking is, "I only have to be more organized." But ladies, you cannot organize clutter! You can only get rid of it! If you are out of space in your closets, dressers, cabinets, and drawers for your new things, then it's time to get rid of some old things! Nothing feels as good as a good purge. Being able to let go of the excess things that we don't use or don't enjoy or don't love anymore is very freeing.
But I also understand this can be very emotional for a lot of people. You've held on to certain things since high school or even earlier. Or your now-deceased grandmother gave you that outfit you've always hated, and it seems like giving it away would disrespect her memory. Perhaps you have a family heirloom that gives you the creeps. (Empire style, anyone?) But learning to let go will free you up, not only physically, but also emotionally and even spiritually.
While your great-grandmother's wedding corsage may not make the first round of cuts, I'm sure there are lots of things that you know you should and could get rid of without much guilt. We are going to use the simple three-box system. Get three boxes, bags, plastic totes, whatever you prefer. You are going to separate your stuff into three piles: keep, donate, throw away.
Now, don't go pulling apart the whole room! Only go one closet, one shelf, one drawer at a time until you're done. Only pull out what you know you'll be able to finish with in the amount of time you have. In fact, you may want to start with your pile of things without homes.
Once you have finished an area and weeded out the "donates" and the "throw aways", return your keeps to the same area to get it out of your way. Unless you already have a place for it somewhere else, just put it back where it came from for the time being.
Tomorrow, we will look more closely at determining what to get rid of and what to keep. For now, just repeat after me: "A place for everything, and everything in its place." :)
If you've followed my advice in my last post, you have now taken out the trash, taken the dirty dishes to the kitchen, put away your clothes, and put away everything that has a home. Some of you are actually finished with your cleaning now. Yay! Just dust and vacuum and you're good to go!
However, if you're like me, you still have a pile of stuff that doesn't have homes. (Most of mine is my newly acquired Christmas presents.) This is called clutter. Clutter can eat you alive. It can actually cause you to feel depressed and drain your energy. It is not healthy for us.
The common way of thinking is, "I only have to be more organized." But ladies, you cannot organize clutter! You can only get rid of it! If you are out of space in your closets, dressers, cabinets, and drawers for your new things, then it's time to get rid of some old things! Nothing feels as good as a good purge. Being able to let go of the excess things that we don't use or don't enjoy or don't love anymore is very freeing.
But I also understand this can be very emotional for a lot of people. You've held on to certain things since high school or even earlier. Or your now-deceased grandmother gave you that outfit you've always hated, and it seems like giving it away would disrespect her memory. Perhaps you have a family heirloom that gives you the creeps. (Empire style, anyone?) But learning to let go will free you up, not only physically, but also emotionally and even spiritually.
While your great-grandmother's wedding corsage may not make the first round of cuts, I'm sure there are lots of things that you know you should and could get rid of without much guilt. We are going to use the simple three-box system. Get three boxes, bags, plastic totes, whatever you prefer. You are going to separate your stuff into three piles: keep, donate, throw away.
Now, don't go pulling apart the whole room! Only go one closet, one shelf, one drawer at a time until you're done. Only pull out what you know you'll be able to finish with in the amount of time you have. In fact, you may want to start with your pile of things without homes.
Once you have finished an area and weeded out the "donates" and the "throw aways", return your keeps to the same area to get it out of your way. Unless you already have a place for it somewhere else, just put it back where it came from for the time being.
Tomorrow, we will look more closely at determining what to get rid of and what to keep. For now, just repeat after me: "A place for everything, and everything in its place." :)
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Where Do I Begin With This Hot Mess?
Do I have your attention? :) If you're like me, you have a huge post-holiday mess at your house: Christmas presents, dirty dishes, decorations, piles of stuff that just got dumped on the floor or the table instead of being put away because there was celebrating to do! I love the phrase "hot mess," and it is sooo appropriate for my computer room right now! So where do we start in cleaning up this hot mess?
Now, to some of you, this may seem like a silly question. You may even have a tidy house that didn't suffer from the Holiday Hurricane. You are what is called BO: Born Organized. You are so lucky! But a lot of us are messies: we have no clue where to begin. Sure, if it's a sinkful of dirty dishes, or a pile of dirty clothes, we know what to do. But what about this giant wreck that has magically appeared over the month of December?
Here is the simple plan I use when I'm overwhelmed with a huge mess. You can use it, too.
1. Grab a trash bag and get rid of all the trash you can find.
2. Now pick up all the dirty dishes and take them to the kitchen. Don't get sidetracked with doing them now. Just get them into the room where they belong.
3. Next, take care of clothes, blankets, and other textiles. Toss dirty clothes in the hamper and put the clean clothes away. If your clean clothes don't have a home, just pile them neatly out of the way. (We will begin to deal with clutter in another day or two.) Fold up your snuggies and put the toss pillows back where they belong.
There! I'm sure it's much better already! Now all that's left is stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. We all have way too much stuff. Our job is to figure out what stuff we need and what stuff we can get rid of. We will look more into decluttering tomorrow. But first let's deal with things that already have a home.
My organizing mantra may be an old cliche, but it endures because it is soooo practical: A place for everything, and everything in its place. If all of your things have a home, it is easy to clean up your house by simply returning each item to its home. It is the things that don't have a home that are the source of distress for a lot of us!
The fourth and final step we'll look at today is returning things to their home. We'll deal with homeless things tomorrow. :) If you have a lot of stuff out of place (like I do), then it may take awhile to do this. Even taking things into the rooms they belong in is a big help.
I have spent the last few days doing these four steps, and the results are amazing! Sure, I need to vacuum and dust. And there is still a pile of Christmas presents to find homes for. But I feel like I can breathe in my office again!
Follow these steps, and your hot mess will be reduced to a smoldering ember. :)
Now, to some of you, this may seem like a silly question. You may even have a tidy house that didn't suffer from the Holiday Hurricane. You are what is called BO: Born Organized. You are so lucky! But a lot of us are messies: we have no clue where to begin. Sure, if it's a sinkful of dirty dishes, or a pile of dirty clothes, we know what to do. But what about this giant wreck that has magically appeared over the month of December?
Here is the simple plan I use when I'm overwhelmed with a huge mess. You can use it, too.
1. Grab a trash bag and get rid of all the trash you can find.
2. Now pick up all the dirty dishes and take them to the kitchen. Don't get sidetracked with doing them now. Just get them into the room where they belong.
3. Next, take care of clothes, blankets, and other textiles. Toss dirty clothes in the hamper and put the clean clothes away. If your clean clothes don't have a home, just pile them neatly out of the way. (We will begin to deal with clutter in another day or two.) Fold up your snuggies and put the toss pillows back where they belong.
There! I'm sure it's much better already! Now all that's left is stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. We all have way too much stuff. Our job is to figure out what stuff we need and what stuff we can get rid of. We will look more into decluttering tomorrow. But first let's deal with things that already have a home.
My organizing mantra may be an old cliche, but it endures because it is soooo practical: A place for everything, and everything in its place. If all of your things have a home, it is easy to clean up your house by simply returning each item to its home. It is the things that don't have a home that are the source of distress for a lot of us!
The fourth and final step we'll look at today is returning things to their home. We'll deal with homeless things tomorrow. :) If you have a lot of stuff out of place (like I do), then it may take awhile to do this. Even taking things into the rooms they belong in is a big help.
I have spent the last few days doing these four steps, and the results are amazing! Sure, I need to vacuum and dust. And there is still a pile of Christmas presents to find homes for. But I feel like I can breathe in my office again!
Follow these steps, and your hot mess will be reduced to a smoldering ember. :)
Monday, January 2, 2012
Using Our Time to Serve God
Well, now that I have a fabulous layout and color scheme, it is time to get down to the business of blogging! This is not going to be a blog about finding the perfect husband, or how being single is soooo much better than being married. Neither attitude is healthy, or even scriptural. Singlehood is simply the season of our life we are currently in. We all go through different seasons in life, and each has its pros and cons. No season is any better or any worse than any other. Our job, as Christians, is to be content with where God has us, and to be as productive as we can in our current season.
I want to take a moment to reflect on the main benefit of being single: free time. Now most of you are probably saying "Free time? What's that?" But without the obligations of husbands and children, we have much more time to ourselves than other women.
As single women, we can take advantage of this extra time by getting involved in church and service projects. Ladies, we should be the first to volunteer for things that need done around church: teaching Sunday School, decorating for church dinners, preparing communion, working at the food bank, and so forth. Not that I do ALL of these things myself, nor do I expect any of you to do it all. We all have different gifts, and different areas we're called to serve in.
But we should be doing our share of church work, and maybe even a little bit more. It is easy to sit back and let the older, more experienced women do everything, but how is that preparing us to take over when they're gone? We need to let them mentor us and teach us how to keep the church running smoothly after they're gone.
And let's not get frustrated with other women our age. Some of us had "Super Moms," who could do it all: family, church, and career. But most women are not super moms. While the young mothers in our churches should be doing what they can, we simply can't expect them to do as much as we do. I find myself in this mindset sometimes. "Why don't the other younger women do this or that like I do, and my sister does?" (She's married but has no kids, so she's active in church, too.) But it can't be easy to raise several kids, keep a home, and have a career. We need to go easy on them and realize that once they are past this season of their lives, they will get more involved.
But the main thing that we should be doing with our free time is building our relationship with God. Right now, we have the advantage of being able to spend lots of time in daily prayer and Bible study. Some days I spend as much as an hour and a half in daily devotions. (Not that I'm oh so holy, my mind just wanders a lot, lol.) But in this season of life, we have the opportunity to become very close to God. Building that firm foundation now will give us a base of faith to depend on when we enter other seasons of our lives.
If you haven't done so today, take a few minutes to thank God for all His blessings in your life, and read a chapter or two of the Bible. And the next time the Ladies' Group is looking for someone to help with the next church banquet, be sure to offer your services!
I want to take a moment to reflect on the main benefit of being single: free time. Now most of you are probably saying "Free time? What's that?" But without the obligations of husbands and children, we have much more time to ourselves than other women.
As single women, we can take advantage of this extra time by getting involved in church and service projects. Ladies, we should be the first to volunteer for things that need done around church: teaching Sunday School, decorating for church dinners, preparing communion, working at the food bank, and so forth. Not that I do ALL of these things myself, nor do I expect any of you to do it all. We all have different gifts, and different areas we're called to serve in.
But we should be doing our share of church work, and maybe even a little bit more. It is easy to sit back and let the older, more experienced women do everything, but how is that preparing us to take over when they're gone? We need to let them mentor us and teach us how to keep the church running smoothly after they're gone.
And let's not get frustrated with other women our age. Some of us had "Super Moms," who could do it all: family, church, and career. But most women are not super moms. While the young mothers in our churches should be doing what they can, we simply can't expect them to do as much as we do. I find myself in this mindset sometimes. "Why don't the other younger women do this or that like I do, and my sister does?" (She's married but has no kids, so she's active in church, too.) But it can't be easy to raise several kids, keep a home, and have a career. We need to go easy on them and realize that once they are past this season of their lives, they will get more involved.
But the main thing that we should be doing with our free time is building our relationship with God. Right now, we have the advantage of being able to spend lots of time in daily prayer and Bible study. Some days I spend as much as an hour and a half in daily devotions. (Not that I'm oh so holy, my mind just wanders a lot, lol.) But in this season of life, we have the opportunity to become very close to God. Building that firm foundation now will give us a base of faith to depend on when we enter other seasons of our lives.
If you haven't done so today, take a few minutes to thank God for all His blessings in your life, and read a chapter or two of the Bible. And the next time the Ladies' Group is looking for someone to help with the next church banquet, be sure to offer your services!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
My Very First Post!
Hello, everyone! I am just getting the feel for this blogging thing. I don't have much here yet, but I'm working on the basics tonight. I shall get more into the content in the next couple of days. Can't wait to join the wide world of blogging!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)